Dendera (also spelled Denderah), is a little town in Egypt. Located about 5 km up Nile from Qina, on the opposite side of the Nile. Once the capital of the 6th Nome of Upper Egypt, though never that important.

Located rather isolated on the desert edge, about 2.5 km south-west of the Town, lay what Dendera is known for (nobody knows the town), the mostly Greco-Roman Temple Complex, Dendera, known in ancient Egyptians as Lunet or Tantere.

The Temple Complex

Dendera Temple complex consist of the Temple of Isis, Scared Lake, Sanatorium, Mammisi of Nectanebo II, Christian or Coptic Basilica, Roman Mammisi, Bark shine, Gate of Demitian & Trajan, another Gate and the Roman Kiosk – but the all overshadowing building in the Complex is the main temple, namely Hathor temple, one of the best, if not the best, preserved temple in all Egypt. The whole complex covers some 40.000 square meters and is surrounded by a hefty mud brick enclosed wall.

Dendera was a site for chapels or shrines from the beginning of history of ancient Egypt. It seems that pharaoh Pepi I (ca. 2250 BC) built on this site and evidence exists of a temple in the eighteenth dynasty (ca 1500 BC). But the earliest extant building in the compound today is the Mammisi raised by Nectanebo II – last of the native pharaohs (360-343 BC)

Tourism today

The Temple complex is not crowded like so many other sites in Egypt today (yet!) Just compare it to example the Pyramids of Giza or Karnak at Luxor, one will know what crowded means.

The temple is open from 8.00am to 4.00pm (5.00pm in the summer) and cost 20LE (per 1st Jan 2005) for a ticket, which one can buy directly at the gate.

If one comes alone, not with some tourist group, one can practical have the temple all alone all day. It is seldom that single tourists find there way out to the complex and groups, while sometimes comprising up to 100 or more people, usually only stay there for an hour or two.

How to get there

It easy to get to Dendera. Grap the train from Luxor or Cairo, get off in Qina and a taxi is no more than 5-7min from the site. A train from either city cost no more than 30 LE. Another possibility is to grap a Nile Cruise from Luxor. They set of at 6.30 in the morning, cost 200-300L.E and arrives at Qina about 11.00-11.30. The Cruise vessels moor at the south bank of Qina. Police escorted busses will then take you to the site, but you only get one or two hours at the site.

Explore-ability of the Temple

The Dendara complex has long been one of the most tourist explorable ancient Egyptian place of Worship. It use to be possible to visit virtually every part of the complex, from the crypts to the top most roof of Hathor temple, to every other monument located in the complex. But sadly this has changed in resent years. The top most part of the roof, which gives a fantastic view, has been closed for years now. Why this is, is unknown, but the last time it was open default was in 2003. The second stage of the roof was closed in December 2004, when some tourist fell from there on to the first stage of the roof (couple of meters). That leaves the first stage of the roof still open. However it is now virtually pointless to visited the roof of Hathor temple, as the first stage is surrounded by meter-high walls that leaves you unable to see anything of the excellent view that otherwise is from up there.